NY Times Headline ‘Australians Assessing Injuries to the Head’

Smart Head Play & Deakin Uni study on sports concussion effects appears in the NY Times print and online editions.

First published by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on March 9, 2013.

Full transcript of the piece is below:

Australians Assessing Injuries to the Head

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Concern over sports-related concussions has spread to Australia, where one of the country’s former rules football players says he has a degenerative brain disease after having sustained four serious head injuries during his career.

Representatives of the four main variations of football in this country — Australian rules, rugby league, rugby union and soccer — will take part in a two-day conference this month to discuss the long-term effects of brain injuries to their athletes.

Deakin University in Melbourne has begun a study involving 30 Australian Football League and National Rugby League players.

Among them is Greg Williams, a two-time winner of the Brownlow Medal as the A.F.L.’s “best and fairest” player, who says he cannot remember large chunks of his career.

Williams is one of seven players in the Deakin study who are showing symptoms of the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative condition that has affected some athletes who have had a history of concussions and other head traumas.

Dr. Alan Pearce, who is directing the study, says there are valid comparisons in Australia with the N.F.L., where an Associated Press review in November found that more than 3,800 players have sued the league over head injuries in at least 175 cases as the concussion issue has gained attention in recent years.

“To put it into context, some have said the A.F.L. cannot have a similar problem as the N.F.L., but the situation is similar,” Pearce said in a telephone interview. “We are seeing similar long-term effects on some of the players.”

Junior Seau, a former N.F.L. linebacker, shot and killed himself last May at 43. He was found to have had C.T.E., based on posthumous tests, in January. His former wife, Gina, and four children are suing the league, saying Seau’s suicide was a result of brain disease caused by violent hits he sustained while playing football.

In Australia, Williams won the A.F.L. championship match in 1995 with Carlton and played 250 senior matches with three clubs from 1984 to 1997. His wife, Mary, has been quoted in the Australian news media saying that her husband, 49, is sometimes forgetful and often loses his temper.

“We are noticing similar symptoms coming through,” Pearce said of the Deakin study, without referring to Williams specifically.

“Depression, detachment, all of which sounds very similar to other cases here and overseas,” he said. “Anyone suffering from those symptoms needs to get to a neurologist.”

Dr. Barry Jordan, the director of the brain injury program and memory evaluation treatment at the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, said behavioral changes were among the early “danger signs.”

“The brain controls memory and thinking, but it also controls behavior,” said Jordan, a neurologist who works with the United States national boxing team.

“I think we are making headway into educating the general community, athletes and fans to recognize concussions, and people are much more aware,” Jordan said in a telephone interview.

Despite the extra attention on potential for longer-term injuries, participation rates are increasing in all major styles of football in Australia.

Football administrators are reacting to the recent medical research by introducing new protocols to assess concussions.

In the second round of the Super 15 rugby union tournament two weeks ago, Melbourne Rebels fullback James O’Connor — one of the sport’s biggest stars — was not allowed back on the field in a match against the Brumbies after he failed a sideline concussion-monitoring test.

A Concussion in Sport conference to be held in Melbourne on March 20 and 21 will discuss the possible introduction of helmets for players, something the veteran A.F.L. coach Mick Malthouse would like to see explored.

Many visitors to Australia, and those watching worldwide on television, are surprised that players in the A.F.L., rugby league and rugby union rarely wear protective headgear.

“It’s going to have to come back at some stage to the medical people to say, ‘We have now developed a helmet that fits over the head that softens the blow,’ ” Malthouse said.